Resource

Pomegranate Center (Issaquah, Washington, USA)

Pomegranate Center—based in Issaquah, Washington—is an internationally recognized leader in developing neighborhood gathering places and is a leading nonprofit devoted to community-generated design and development.

We combine design and art with community planning, public participation, environmental methods, hands-on learning and mentoring in an integrated process to help communities become more livable, sustainable, and socially engaged. We accomplish this work through the following programs. We work with communities to create gathering places—shared public spaces including parks, neighborhood focal points, community trails, and public artworks—that contribute to community distinction, vitality and social interaction. No one understands a community like its own residents. Therefore, we engage community members at every stage of development: from planning and design through construction.

Our Gathering Places program focuses on communities in greatest need of generative public spaces. * Low-income urban, rural and migrant farmer communities * High-density neighborhoods feeling the pressure of increasing development * Cities and towns in search of greater sense of identity and cohesion.